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BACKSCRATCHER

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 135 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BACKSCRATCHER , a See also:

long slender See also:rod of See also:wood, See also:whalebone, See also:tortoiseshell, See also:horn or See also:cane, with a carved human See also:hand, usually of See also:ivory, mounted at the extremity. Its name suggests the See also:primary use of the See also:implement, but little is known of its See also:history, and it was unquestionably also employed as a See also:kind of See also:rake to keep in See also:order the huge " heads " of powdered See also:hair worn by ladies during a considerable portion of the 18th and the See also:early See also:part of the loth centuries. The backscratcher varies in length from 12 to 20 in., and the more elaborate examples,which were occasionally hung from the See also:waist, are See also:silver-mounted, and in rare instances the ivory fingers See also:bear carved rings. The hand is sometimes outstretched, and sometimes the fingers are flexed; the modelling is frequently See also:good, the fingers delicately formed and the nails well defined. As a See also:rule the rod is finished off with a knob. The hand was now and again replaced by a rake or a See also:bird's claw. The hand was indifferently See also:dexter or sinister, but the See also:Chinese variety usually bears a right hand. Like most of the obsolete appliances of daily See also:life, the backscratcher, or scratch-back, as it is sometimes called, has become scarce, and it is one of the innumerable See also:objects which attract the See also:attention of the See also:modern See also:collector. BACK'S See also:RIVER (Thlewechodyelh, or "See also:Great See also:Fish"), a river in See also:Mackenzie and See also:Keewatin districts, See also:Canada, rising in See also:Sussex See also:lake, a small See also:body of See also:water in 1o8° 2o' W. and 64° 25' N., and flowing with a very tortuous course N.E. to an inlet of the See also:Arctic Ocean, passing through several large lake-expansions—Pelly, Garry, MacDougall and See also:Franklin. Like the See also:Coppermine, the only other large river of this part of Canada, it is rendered unnavigable by a See also:succession of rapids and rocks. It was discovered and explored by See also:Sir See also:George Back in 1834. Its See also:total length is 56o m.

End of Article: BACKSCRATCHER

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